West Papua Health Office's Disease Prevention and Control Department Head, Norma, stated that designation of the alert status aligns with the Health Ministry's instruction on handling mysterious acute hepatitis cases.
"The alert status is nationwide, and in West Papua, we are instructing public and private hospitals as well as public health centres to report (to the authority) if they detected a sudden surge (in the number) of hepatitis cases in their region," Norma stated here on Friday.
The department head also urged health officers at health service facilities to take proactive measures to detect hepatitis symptoms among infants and children in their respective work regions.
"Until now, West Papua has not recorded any acute hepatitis cases, but we will enhance our vigil by conducting blood sampling on infants and children that are suffering from symptoms of hepatitis as our early detection measures," she remarked.
Acute hepatitis reported in several countries, including Indonesia, is different from other hepatitis variants, as the disease origin is currently unknown, Norma noted, adding that the mysterious acute hepatitis disease causes severe symptoms that could appear rapidly.
"In general, only hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E cases are recorded in Papua and West Papua. Mysterious acute hepatitis only infects children below 16 years of age, and most cases are recorded among children below 10 years of age," the department head noted.
She urged residents to be cautious about symptoms of mysterious acute hepatitis among children.
"Symptoms of this disease are diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, stomach ache, and sometimes fever, as well as jaundiced eyes and skin," Norma stated.
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Translator: Hans Arnold K, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Sri Haryati
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